s so sacred the religious meanings not only must have been clear to the original worshippers, they must also have been very specific. The great specificity of the rules regarding the construction of the temples and the great sanctity of the sites make this much clear. The intent of the builders was to create a temple that was a reproduction of "the image of the world or of God in architecture, combined with a regard for the magic of numbers and proportions to ensure the harmony of the structure with the cosmos it reproduced." The selection of sites, the types of materials to be used, and every other detail were carefully considered and subject to the rules governing the approach to divine beings since the temple "was itself a concrete object of devotion, the dwelling place of the gods on earth."
The inclusion of the erotic sculptures on this and other Hindu temples must, therefore, have deep religious significance as well as very specific meanings. But there is disagreement among scholars. Mitra felt that popular explanations of the figures as protection against lightning or the evil eye were completely unconvincing. But Desai found that this function was at least a part of the
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